Truth Uses Film Shoots as Events in New TV Campaign
Truth, the American Legacy Foundation’s national youth smoking prevention campaign, is out with a new TV campaign where the filming of the ads are events in among themselves.
In New York City, cowboys rode cows, instead of horses, down Wall Street as the film crew worked to capture the images. As people stopped to look, the teenager atop the bovine announced that both cow flatulence and cigarettes produce methane gas and asks if the Marlboro Man would be more comfortable riding a cow than a horse. The “Marlboro Cow” spot questions the images the tobacco industry has used to glamorize cigarettes, truth said.
The overall campaign, called “truth found,” sheds light on the effects of the tobacco industry’s marketing decisions on the lives of America’s youth. The campaign will feature 30- and 60-second spot, which will air through March 2006 using three themes—”profiles,” “hospital beds” and “good Samaritans.”
“Despite a decline in funding, truth continues to successfully share with American youth the facts about tobacco and the ways the tobacco industry markets its products towards them,” said Dr. Cheryl Healton, president and CEO of the foundation, in a statement.
The campaign is being supported by an interactive Web component (set to launch any day) at Thetruth.com, print ads in youth-oriented magazines, banner ads and a radio campaign that rolls in January.
Arnold Worldwide, Boston and Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami, created the campaign.
The American Legacy Foundation has been involved in an ongoing legal dispute with the Lorillard Tobacco Co. over its campaigns and last August received a victory in one court.
The Delaware Chancery Court sided with the American Legacy Foundation in a suit filed in 2002 by Lorillard Tobacco Co., saying that its youth-smoking campaign, “truth,” does not vilify, nor personally attack tobacco companies or their employees. The court also found that the foundation did not violate the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (Xtra, Aug. 24).
Lorillard’s suit was based on the foundation’s truth campaign, developed from tobacco company documents. The ads began running in February 2000. Lorillard filed the suit in February 2002 asking the court to stop the ads. Lorillard is likely to appeal.
Truth launched in February 2000 and is the largest national youth smoking prevention campaign, which exposes the marketing tactics of the tobacco industry, the truth about addiction and the health effects and social consequences of smoking, the foundation said.
